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Reuters • Tuesday March 5, 2013 6:42 AM

ADEN, Yemen — A suicide bomber killed at least 12 members of a pro-government militia that
helped the Yemeni army drive al-Qaida-linked militants out of southern strongholds in a U.S.-backed
campaign last year, a commander said yesterday.

Nizar Jaafar said 15 other people were wounded in the attack on an office in the town of Lawdar,
in the southern province of Abyan.

Residents said the force of the blast shook the center of Lawdar. No one claimed responsibility
for the attack, but Islamist group Ansar al-Sharia has previously said it carried out similar
bombings, often in reprisal for the tribal fighters’ role in driving the militants out of their
strongholds.

Yemen has been grappling with multiple challenges since a popular uprising forced President Ali
Abdullah Saleh out of office in 2011 and brought Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi in his place.

Apart from the Islamist militant insurgency, the U.S.-allied country is fighting a separatist
movement seeking to revive the socialist state that merged with North Yemen in 1990. Yemen, which
is next door to the world’s top oil exporter, Saudi Arabia, is also fighting a potential challenge
from Shiite Muslim rebels known as Houthis in the north.

Ansar al-Sharia has carried out a campaign of suicide attacks against the Yemeni army and its
militia allies after being forced out of cities they captured in 2011, during the turmoil that
accompanied the popular protests against Saleh.

In a separate incident, a local official said that four suspected militants escaped from a
prison in Lawdar yesterday. The official gave no further details.

The United States has used unmanned drones to target the al-Qaida group in Yemen, which has
planned attacks on international targets, including airliners, and is described by Washington as
the movement’s most-dangerous wing.